By Ross Shinberg
Regional Sports Editor
West Liberty’s girls’ wrestlers are picking up right where they left off in 2023 — lots of wins and lots of pins.
At the season’s opening events in Sigourney-Keota and Independence, there were plenty of points and raised arms to go around.
The Comets nearly picked up a team victory in the season’s first event at Sigourney High School, but were more than content with a runner-up finish last Tuesday (Nov. 19).
With 123.5 team points, West Liberty was only bested by Pekin’s 132.0. Only Newton and its 105.0 team points found a way to break the 80-point barrier as the other 15 schools in attendance fell short of that marker.
A trio of Comets took home gold medals as senior Silvia Garcia-Vasquez (120), freshman Aileen Aragon (125) and sophomore Bricsia Garcia-Vasquez (190) claimed first place.
The older Garcia-Vasquez sibling, the top-ranked Class 1A wrestler in her weight class, faced little resistance in her return to the varsity mats.
All three of her wins came via first-period pin with a decisive championship victory over Kaylia Shipman of North Mahaska.
The younger Garcia-Vasquez sibling, ranked fifth in the Class 1A heavyweight division, had a bit more of a unique path in a round-robin format.
First, she earned a technical fall 17-2 over Sigourney’s Madison Clarahan. This was followed by a second-period pin in her second match and win by disqualification in her third and final round.
All three wins counted the same way as she earned a perfect 3-0 start to her season.
Lastly, Aragon needed just two victories to claim the first tournament win of her high school career. She pinned Newton’s Alivia Conely at 1:20 in the semifinals and Pekin’s Reece Brisby at 0:59 in the first-place match.
Every other Comet wrestler either placed second or third in their respective brackets.
Runners-up included sophomore Addison Guerra (100) and junior Kiley Collins (130).
Collins, the No. 9 ranked wrestler at 125-pounds according to IAwrestle, moved up in division for this tournament to accommodate Aragon.
She earned two first-period pins in the quarterfinal and semifinal matches but got tripped up against Layla Ewing of Moravia in the championship.
Guerra went 1-1 in the round robin competition at 100-pounds, securing a first-period pin against Izzy McCullough of Sigourney.
Additionally, sophomore Alivia Garcia (115) and Jacquelin Molina (135) took third-place finishes in this tournament.
Garcia won both of her matches last Tuesday with first-period pins, the last one coming in the bronze medal match against Athena Flores of WACO at 1:01.
Molina won via second-period pin in her quarterfinal match, fell in the semifinals, but bounced back to claim third place with a pin at 1:46 against Lone Tree’s Olivia Magruder.
More of the same
Last Saturday’s tournament had a state-like atmosphere with 27 schools packing the gyms at Independence High School.
The Comets placed 19th with 114.5 team points. Osage won the meet with 369.5 team points followed by Cedar Rapids Prairie (341.5), East Buchanan (303.5) and Waverly-Shell Rock (298).
Silvia Garcia-Vasquez (120) took gold yet again, adding five more wins to her 2024 ledger.
Her first two round wins, both falls, took 75 seconds combined. She then used an 11-0 major decision to boost herself into the semifinals.
There, she pinned Linn-Mar’s Ally Jelinek in 93 seconds. In the championship match, against Class 2A No. 7 Olivia Hallam of Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Garcia-Vasquez proved small school kids can get the job done with a pin at 1:59.
Also placing on the podium in Independence was Aragon (125), who had a bittersweet end to her tournament.
At first, she rolled with wins in the first four rounds of the event including a 16-0 technical fall against Madison Swenson of Osage in the quarterfinals.
However, a setback in the semifinals dropped her to the consolation bracket. Later, in the third-place match, Aragon medically forfeited to Swenson after a long day on the mats.
Of the seven Comets competing at the event, the other wrestler to place inside the top 10 was Collins who took seventh at 125.
Collins won her first three matches of the day but fell in the quarterfinals to West Delaware’s Anna O’Rear, the same girl Aragon lost to in the semifinals.
Swenson then got the better of Collins in the second round of consolations. Collins ended her day on a high note with a 33-second pin of Charrli Isham in the seventh-place match.
Rounding out the lineup in Independence was Addison Guerra at 100 (11th place), Sofia Garcia at 110 (19th place), Alivia Garcia at 115 (12th place) and Ximena Valenzuela at 130 (19th place).
Expectations are understandably high for this Comets team which checks into the season ranked tenth as a team in the Class 1A tournament team rankings.
West Liberty hosted its annual invitational on Monday and will return after the Thanksgiving break on Monday, Dec. 2 for the 16-school Tipton Girls Wrestling Invitational.